My mother was a reading teacher. She bought all the books her kids read each year. She’d hand them out. The kids would keep them for a few weeks, and usually return them.

Every year I would schlep several boxes of her books, between home and her classroom. 30 copies of this. 40 copies of that. Maybe a couple dozen titles. I personally would’ve appreciated it, if the school bought the books, so I didn’t have to carry them all twice a year.

My coworker bought a toner cartridge last week. All of my OT co-workers buy all of the supplies for their weekly activities. I buy lots of screws and small items to fix kids wheelchairs or broken classroom toys, tools for my teachers, etc. Last year i bought a $50 cot to serve as a portable changing table for field trips. New admin threw it away over the summer, along with thousands of dollars worth of equipment, because they didn’t know what it was and didn’t bother to ask.

We donated a guitar to a high school music program. Honestly, I don’t know anyone who owns exactly one guitar. You either have none or several. Do you really need them all? How about taking your old student model and letting a beginner play on it? I get it. It’s that sentimental first instrument you ever picked up. But you’re not playing it anymore, and instruments like to be played. It deserves a happier life than sitting at the back of your closet.